$10 million vs $380,000. Who wins?
On Sunday I saw the Pirates and Giants play at ATT Park with dug.
The pitching match up was $126 million Barry Zito (the highest paid pitcher, 2007’s stake is $10 million) vs. $380,000 Tom Gorzelanny. Zito walk the first three batters, gave up a two-run home run and a two-run triple (both to Josh Phelps). Meanwhile, Gorzelanny had his first complete game shut out, helping him earn the National League co-player of the week honors.
It was a fun game to watch and it was the first time I’d sat in the left field bleachers (5th row–nice grab, dug!). All in all a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Both teams then flew to Pittsburgh for a make-up double header on Monday. I’m only mentioning it because there was some craziness with the line-up on the Pirates behalf. Between the two games, here’s some of the odd positions:
- Doumit, normally a backup catcher, playing right field (until he sprained his wrist)
- Castillo, normally a 3rd baseman (or utility infielder), playing right field (once Doumit went out, first game)
- Bautista, normally a 2nd baseman (or utility infielder), playing left field (second game)
- Phelps, normally a 1st baseman, catching
Wow!
August 15th, 2007 at 4:43 am
On Sunday I do things on Sunday.
I thought all the non-pitchers were mostly around to hit and could always play any of the non-pitching positions.
August 15th, 2007 at 6:04 am
a) fixed.
b) not really. infielders/ outfielders/ catchers are not usually interchangeable.
August 19th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Yeah, the lineups were pretty crazy. Doumit has actually played right a number of times before. After Paulino came up from AAA, Doumit didn’t play catcher as much, so they put him at first base a few times last year. This year, with Nady out, they put him in right field just to get his bat in the lineup. He’s done a decent job.
I was surprised to see Phelps catching. I assume he had experience as a catcher at some point in his past.
Apparently, according to the Pirates announcers, Castillo has played outfield during winter baseball in South America, so it’s not a totally new thing for him. It’s just new for American fans to see him play outfield.
Also, Bautista normally plays 3rd for the Pirates. Sanchez has been playing 2nd this year most of the time. However, it IS unusual to see him in the outfield.
I was glad to see the Pirates sweep the Giants. They had been doing so wretchedly in July. It must have been a confidence boost for them to win 4 out of 5 against the Giants, though they got blown out in the last of those games…